SOLAS Speakers
Each week, SOLAS hosts a one-hour speaker or movie. Speakers are typically hosted at the LAII, at 801 Yale. Scholars, activists, students, and faculty are invited from inside and outside the UNM community to participate. This is an excellent opportunity to network and learn about current issues in Latin America and the Albuquerque area.
Fall Lecture Series
All lectures are held in the Latin American and Iberian Institute (LAII) at 801 Yale, unless otherwise noted.
(CANCELED) Thursday, November 19th at 2:30 PM, Andrea Plaza from Southwest Creations will give a presentation on what it means to run a business as a social enterprise. Southwest Creations Collaborative (SCC) is a successful contract manufacturing business with an ambitious social mission: to end poverty and create intergenerational wealth. Founded in 1994 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, SCC has pushed the boundaries of both the social enterprise model and the nonprofit model of foundation-funded social change. Come hear about this unique business model working right here in Albuquerque!(CANCELED)
Wednesday, December 2nd at 2:30 in the Herzstein Reading Room (2nd floor, Zimmerman Library), documentary filmmaker and photographer, Jason Jacks will share his multimedia project entitled "A Voice in the Desert," depicting how the militarization of the U.S.-Mexican border violates the cultural rights of the Tohono O'odham Tribe of southern Arizona whose reservation shares 76 miles of the boundary.
In their own language, Tohono O'odham means Desert People. According to their history, the O'odham have called the Sonora desert home since this world began. From Phoenix to Hermosillo, the San Pedro river to the Sea of Cortez, the O'odham have lived, harvested and worshipped in the desert. Today, their homelands are divided between two political entities - the United States and Mexico. Within the United States, the O'odham live on a federally recognized reservation known as the Tohono O'odham Nation. Located in southern Arizona, it shares seventy-six miles of the international boundary. The maelstrom of increasing violence, and the U.S. government's actions to secure its southern border, have stripped cultural and religious rights from the O'odham. Today, their traditional way of life, the Him dag, is under siege. The ubiquitous presence of U.S. Border Patrol, the construction of a border wall, and the closure of ceremonial passageways have eroded at O'odham culture. Mobility and migration, integral parts of O'odham traditions, have suffered greatly under United States border policies. Many O'odham, in both countries, lack proper documentation to apply for passports - they were born at home, in the desert. Without passports, the O'odham face incredible difficulties traveling throughout their homelands, and the O'odham living in Mexico have been all but severed from the tribe. For nearly the past two years, I have traveled throughout the Sonora meeting the O'odham and witnessing a people living a precarious duality within their own lands.
